The Great Lincoln Tower

A story of intrigue, obsession, and the remains of the nation’s 16th president

Built in 1918 and, at the time, the tallest building in the western hemisphere, the Lincoln Tower’s construction was commissioned by Robert Lincoln, the oldest son of Abraham, the 16th president of the United States. He built it as a memorial of his father, and like the pyramids of ancient Egypt, as a tomb.

Legend has it that there are miles of catacombs that extend hundreds of feet beneath and several city blocks out from the Great Lincoln Tower, and it is adorned with Masonry symbols put there by the stonemasons who built it. Not much is known about the full extent of the tunnels’ reach, and only one map is known to exist, which is in possession of ARCH, a local historical preservation organization that has a secret pact never to reveal it to the public. Rumors have it that the tunnels have many access points throughout downtown Fort Wayne and surrounding buildings. The stonemasons who built the Tower were responsible for 95% of the construction of other downtown buildings as well, and may have connected the tunnels to as many as 35 other businesses.

Whether or not Abraham Lincoln is actually buried at the Great Lincoln Tower cannot be confirmed, but historians do know that Robert Lincoln’s head was cyrogenically frozen and placed in a capsule at the top of the building. You can see it in this photo, directly underneath the flag.

This photo was taken in 1934 by Virgil B. Esterhaus, a conspiracy theorist and amateur photographer. At that time, the Tower still employed a series of secret police that roamed the tunnels and upheld Mason law, feared even by the Fort Wayne Police Department. Minutes after this photo was taken, Esterhaus claims, black-clad men emerged from behind a tree on East Berry Street, knocked him unconscious, and took his camera. Only through his own paranoia and cunning did he replace the film with a empty roll and stash the old roll in a secret compartment in his artificial leg (which he lost while in the intelligence service during the Great War).

This photo is housed in the collection of Emma Esterhaus, great grand-niece and only surviving kin of Virgil Esterhaus. The Great Lincoln Tower is in no way affiliated with the Lincoln Bank Tower, a building with a similar name and a much more boring history.

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